I disagree with this 100%. I love the idea of Nash in TDot but it never made sense beyond the money. It is not "home" for him (that'd be NYK or Victoria) and his NBA career is an entirely separate entity from his National Team duties. Always has been, always will be. Why is he the "one player most likely to sign with the Raptors"? Because of a passport?

The Raps are have not fielded an important team since VC/Tmac and that was for about 2.5 seasons. If you go into any sports store in the US you will not see raps gear anywhere because they are not and have not ever really been relevant. That changes in a heartbeat once the wins start to pile up but as it stands no one is lining up to go to Charlotte, SAC etc for the exact same reason. Nash is not a guarantee to make this team a winner on his own nor is he the ONLY option in building a winner and was, at best, a stopgap solution.

It's all about perception though. I never implied that Nash 'had to' or 'should have' signed in Toronto. It's not Nash's or BC's fault, it's really more the fact that the rumor got into the media and then they ran with it, blowing the pursuit of a free agent into something far bigger, because of all the subplots and storylines. It became some grand national plan for the Raptors to acquire Nash, the prodigal son, and for the franchise's fortunes to turn around... yatta yatta yatta. Again, as anybody in marketing will tell you, perception is far more important an influencer than truth or fact. If a free agent is weighing his options - Toronto being one of them - he could very well think to himself "well Nash, a Canadian player, didn't even sign with the Raptors, why should i?". He won't know the reasons or rational behind Nash's decision, all he'll consider is the fact that Nash said "no".

I also agree with your second paragraph, but signing a 2-time MVP would certainly make the team better, put them into playoff contention (at least) and go a long way towards making the Toronto Raptors franchise relevant again. Nobody ever said Nash was the be-all-and-end-all of signings, who alone would catapult the Raptors into the playoffs, but he would be an excellent starting point to making the team better and helping them attract even more free agents for even further improvements. Lowry or Dragic certainly won't have near the impact (on the court or off the court) that Nash would have.

If Nash disses the raptors he is a b???ch. He sold out Canada, he is basically leaving like 1-2 million dollars on the table to not play for the raptors. How embarrasing is that. People thought that we had a problem attracting free agents before, wait until this gets out "Steve Nash sells out his own country, and leaves 2 million per year on the table, cause he wants to win".

He hasn't played for Canada internationally for like 10 years, and guess what ... he is actually born in south africa, he probably doesn't even consider himself a real canadian. That is it, he is dead to me!

I posted earlier on this thread, that I thought that 36 million for 3 years to a 38 year old was not a sound decision. I will be glad if he doesn't come to Toronto. Lets use our money on a SF, Calderon is a very good PG.

I would've preferred Lowry regardless, he is a better defender, he's younger, and an unbelievable rebounder at the PG position, not to mention a great scorer. I will be much happier if we can pull of something for Lowry instead of Nash.

In which case Phoenix is faced with the same problem BC was faced with when dealing away Bosh. Rock, meet hard place.

As I said in an earlier post, unless Nash just wants each team's offer/deal in place before he decides where he will be playing next season, this all speaks fairly clearly that Toronto is not his preferred destination. If it was, there'd be no point for NYK to even bother negotiating a potential S&T deal with Phoenix, especially after their initial one fell apart (due to Fields not being available).

Wow, just got back from the golf course and there was a lot of reading to catch up on.

The above from Cal fan makes sense to me. I could see how Nash would want all the cards on the table before he makes his decision. Was BC's first offer his best. Would it not make sense to try to drive up your price. Nash is worth a small fortune to MLSE. He has business savvy and is no dummy. It would not be reasonable to think that he would be a slam dunk for TO. I think we are still in the game.

Is it a coincidence that we have 41 mil in committed salary 6.3 to fields and a 12 mil offer to Nash that totals dam near the salary cap number. This without amnestying Calderon. I'm still thinking we have a shot, but acknowledge I am in the minority here.